Thread: Have you seen this County??

Hi all.
I am trying to track down a particular County which my family used to own. I know it's a long shot but I would love to track it down, find out it's history since it left us and hopefully make an offer to buy it back and fully restore it. Don't ask me why, it's just something I would love to do. We bought the car brand new in 1985 ( I was 5 years old!) and spent the next year travelling around Australia in it, so I grew up a year in the back seat bumping around the country, and suprisingly, considering my age, can remember a lot about the trip. Everytime I hear that 'doing' sound a county makes when you release the clutch pedal it takes me back.
Anyway, as I said I would love to find it and restore it as we have an extensive photo history of it's first ten years of life and I think it would be a great project to see it come full circle.
What I know about the car. It was a 1985 V8 County 5 speed, red in colour.
It's registration was CTI 060 (Victorian). I looked about 6 years ago and it was still registered under this plate, although I checked again recently and this number did not seem to be listed, so either the current owner has stopped paying the rego, or it has been re-registered.(or worst case, it has been wrecked)
It was purchased at Ballarat from Gardon Motors and was fitted with an Opposite Lock bullbar (Dad still has the original bumper in the shed) and Cibie driving lights, which were still on it when it got traded. The only other items that might differentiate it from stock county's was it had a custom vinyl covered speaker panel above the rear door with two speakers in it facing forward, and it had a power plug mounted on the rear chassis member, above the towbar. It was an old 32 volt style female plug (looked like the end of an 240 volt extension lead but instead of three slots it had two in the shape of a T). It also had extractors fitted to the V8.
It was traded in 1995 (on a defender 130 which we have only just sold) in Hamilton Victoria, and was purchased by a Someone (dont know first name) Stewart who worked for the shire and lived in Penshurst. The dealer tells me this person has moved on and they have not seen the car for years.
He is also trying to find the VIN number in his old files, but no luck as yet.

I realise I am probably pushing it up hill, but someone might remember the rego from a friends car, or might even own it! Even if you have done something like this yourselves and have an idea of how I might go tracking it down I would love to hear from you.
Hopefully this thread continues through finding the car, and right through its restoration!
Anyways, you might think I'm strange, but i've set myself a challenge, so we'll see how it goes......

just for interests sake, a picture of the 130 brand new that we traded the county in on , 1995.
And our two current landies, an 08 Discovery and a 96 defender farm hack we bought second hand this year.